This is the stupidest job ever
by hawkstorm
Summary: DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

Naruto x Bleach

chapter 1

'This is the stupidest thing ever. Why? Why do I have to be stuck _here_ with _these_ people? The world is obviously coming to an end.' I fumed as I walked down the street, surrounded by some stupid, bubble-headed ninja who wouldn't stop asking me about the new "transfer shinobi."

"Who's that guy with the tattoos?" she blabbed, bouncing around like she was made from rubber, twisting a lock of brown hair in her fingers. "How old is that white-haired kid? Is that one girl in love with him? Do you think Izuru likes brunettes?"

"That's it!" I snapped, stopping and turning so abruptly that the twit almost ran into me. I probably could have held it together longer if that last question didn't fly from her mouth. "You better shut up if you want to keep your tongue much longer!" I stood there, relishing over the fact that, despite being a chunin, the girl looked terrified. "And for your information, Izu-" A long, fair hand covered my mouth, and, unfortunately, cut off my words.

"I've been looking all over for you, Kei." A quiet voice said from behind me. I felt my face turn pink as I turned around to look at the thin, pale face of Izuru Kira. I was thankful that the bouncy ball behind me took the hint and left. "Now, what were you going to say about me?"

My eyes widened and I buried my face into his chest to hide my growing blush. "Nothing... Nothing at all..." I mumbled and felt his cool hand brush away my bright pink bangs.

"Oh, okay then." He said, and with a flick of his wrist he pulled my hair down from its usual high ponytail. He quickly stepped away, taking in the rare sight of my free flowing hair, and to prepare for rage that was soon to come.

It took me a second to realize what happened, but only a second. "Kira Izuru! Give that back!" I ran at him with all the speed I could without busting the mandatory spirit energy seal. It was hard to run in the crowded Leaf Village streets, so I took the opportunity when Izuru leaped toward a roof to flash step up there first.

Unfortunately, I surprised him by my sudden appearance and I didn't have much time to think as he landed on top of me. I felt the air rush from my lungs, but used the momentum to roll over so that I was sitting on top of the stunned blonde lieutenant. "Ah-Ha!" I yelled when I grabbed my hair tie from his hand and proceeded to put up my hair, not moving from my rather comfy seat.

"Are we interrupting?" a cold, annoyed voice questioned. I spun around to face the white-haired and "vertically challenged" captain who stood in front of the snickering lieutenant Renji and the presently blushing lieutenant Hinamori.

"Of course you're not interrupting, Hitsugaya-taichou." I said with a smile and bowed my head in only slightly sarcastic respect. "You're looking well today, annoyance suits you." I heard a small gasp and, when I looked back to see Izuru's face, smiled when I saw a blush of embarrassment shade his cheeks.

I raised myself off of him, because if I didn't, I was sure that the icy captain would have no problem doing it for me. "You missed the meeting with the Hokage." the captain stated. I paused in dusting my legs off to smack my forehead. 'Whoops.' Izuru looked like he had committed a crime aand bowed down to the captain in apology.

Giving a moment to pat Izuru's shoulder I said, "So, what did we miss?... Sir."

The captain rolled his eyes. "She trusts us enough to let us stay, and to even help in missions." I was a split-second away from cheering when he continued with, "But we are to be supervised." and with that, the cheer died and I found myself smacking my forehead again.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me!" I said. "We're going to be baby-sat by people _younger_ than us?!" I hung my head in defeat. "That's it. I give up. This _is_ the stupidest thing ever."

"They said that they would be sending someone to meet us..." piped up Hinamori, looking around nervously. At that moment, a group of people landed behind us. Heads whipped around and hands flew to zanpakutos, only to face a large group of teenage shinobi.

One particularly loud boy dressed in orange, 'Of all the colors...' jumped forward to yell that his name was Naruto Uzumaki and then mentioned something about a hokage. The others slowly introduced themselves as Shikamaru Nara, 'Pineapple-head', Sakura Haruno, 'Ms. Punch-a-lot', Kiba Inuzuka and his dog, Akamaru, 'Dog-boy plus one', Kiko Ookamiinu, 'Dog-boy's owner', and Neji Hyuuga, 'Boring.' Apparently there were supposed to be more, but they got the flu... or some excuse like that. Not that it mattered, there were supposed to be more of us too.

After we introduced ourselves, the rather noisy teens showed us the way to the inn that we would be staying at and told us that they would meet up with us in the morning. The inn was nice, not fancy, but nice. I quietly chatted with Hinamori, having decided to stay in a room with her while the three guys shared another room. We laughed as we heard Renji not-so-quietly ask Izuru what he was _really_ doing with me on the roof. Then we laughed harder when Hitsugaya took refuge in our room to save himself from the oncoming migraine of having to deal with the following shouting match.


	2. Chapter 2

chapter 2

I woke up in the middle of the night. 'Stupid, overly bright moon.' I tried to not wake up Hinamori with my grumbling as I got out of bed to shut the drapes over the window, but stopped when I saw someone sitting on the roof across the street. 'Well, that's a little odd.' Trying not to make too much noise, I pried the window open and jumped out.

"Excuse me..." I said, landing about ten feet from the person on the roof. "May I ask what the heck you are doing?" The person turned to me and I recognized it to be the Uzumaki boy. His serious face shocked me, his bright blue eyes sparkling with unshed tears. I knelt down next to him and asked what was wrong.

"It's just memories." he said. "Memories of an old friend." He told me about a boy named Sasuke Uchiha and how they were close comrades before he betrayed the village and left his friends in pieces. He looked so sad. I wrapped my arms around him in the hope to give some comfort to him. His story reminded me so much of how Hinamori, Hisagi, Izuru, and I had suffered after Aizen's conspiracy. We are the broken souls left behind.

The bitter pain ripped at my lungs and I quickly jumped to the window of my room. I tried to stifle my sobs in my pillow but found that it didn't make much of a difference when Hinamori woke up to sooth my crying until sleep took me once again.

:: — : — : — ::

When I woke up this time it was because of someone yelling, "Wait! Shiro-chan, don't-"

Then an icy gust of wind blasted me out of bed, knocking me onto the hard floor. I slowly rose up and glared at the littlest captain.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked. I lifted my shirt to look at the growing bruise on my side, "I think you cracked a rib." I looked up to see Renji and Izuru walk in, talking about something, but Izuru stopped to stare at me standing there with my shirt lifted half-way up. Now whether he was concerned about my injury or gaping at my toned abs, I'll never know, but I felt it necessary to interrupt his thought process by saying that I was going to go change in the bathroom.

When we met up with the group of kids I noticed some new faces when they led us to a large, empty training field.


	3. Chapter 3

chapter 3

The Pineapple-head started talking about how "even though it's _so_ troublesome..." they're going to determine our level of strength by fighting us, two of them against one of us, the exception being Hinamori who only has to fight Naruto. '_Great_... Really, really great...'

We split into different groups and separated a safe amount of distance from each other. 'Please, get me far away from Hitsugaya-taichou's fight.' I was against Sakura and one of the new faces, Sai, 'Belly-shirt man.' I didn't know what he could do but I had a good idea after seeing some of his equipment: paint brushes and blank scrolls. A style of animation, long distance fighter, but if Ms. Punch-a-lot's strength is anything to judge by, then I'd say that she's a close-up and personal kind of fighter. 'This should be fun.'

I drew out my dormant zanpakuto and waited for them to make the first move. Then, faster than I'd thought, Sakura charged at me, her fist clenched. I was still ready, and flash stepped close to her and made a small, but deep, cut in her side. After moving away, I watched as she pressed a glowing hand to her wound, 'She's a healer... Dang it.' It was their turn again; I felt that I knew too little about their power to attack first. Again Sakura ran at me, but now she was flanked by two lion-like creations. I jumped in the air, dodging both the girl and one of the lions, but Sai must have followed me too fast and managed to have the other loin jump with me, successfully tackling me to the ground.

I kicked it off of me and turned to stab it, splattering into a puddle of ink. I stood again to face them, trying not to turn around at hearing Izuru's familiar cry mixing with the growls of rabid dogs. Sai calculated me with blank eyes, 'This is going to take forever.' Sakura drew back to regroup and to hear Sai's new battle plan. In the background I could hear a loud explosion as Hinamori blasted a powerful kido right through an army of kage bushins mixed with Renji's loud swearing.

Suddenly the both of them were coming at me. 'Uh-oh.' I stuck my sword in the ground and back flipped off of it, Sai was just ten feet away now. 'Bring it on, Belly-shirt.' I swung around and kicked him in the side of his head... _hard_. He burst into ink, which splashed into my eyes, blinding me. All of a sudden, I felt a fist connect with my stomach, sending me flying into the trunk of a tree.

I wiped the ink from my stinging eyes, trying to draw air into my crushed lungs, only to cough out blood. '_Fantastic_.' Blood still dripping from my mouth, I shakily stood up; out of the corner of my eye I saw Hinamori blow up a wall of orange using Tobiume. 'I like her way of thinking.' I smiled, scaring my two opponents.

I flash stepped to where I put my sword and grabbed it from out of the earth. I pointed the blade at the stunned faces of Sakura and Sai. I called, "Take to the air, Taka Arashi!" The resulting explosion flew the pair to the floor. I stood, my long hair flowing in the wind created by my destruction. I held my giant bladed ring tenderly in my hands, like I was holding a baby.

Before I fully registered my actions, I had flipped behind Sai and kicked him to the ground. I jumped on top of him, and pressed the sharpened razor edge of my zanpakuto to his pale neck.

"No! Stop!" Sakura begged, "The fight is over." She ran over to my side. I flashed a glare at her so she would remember that I haven't backed off just yet, and she froze at the gleam in my yellow eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

chapter 4

"Heh, You really thought I was going to kill him didn't you?" I laughed, ruffling Sai's black hair and standing up. I laughed harder at Sakura's incredulous look, but then the punch from earlier came back and my laughing soon turned into hacking blood up from my lungs on my hands and knees.

"Oh! I'm so sorry about that." Sakura rushed to my side "I kind of hit you harder than I needed to. I'll help you with that." She knelt down next to me, leaving Sai to help himself up. She laid me down on my back to look closer at my stomach. She gently lifted my shirt to see if she broke any ribs. "Yep, you have three broken ribs and a partially punctured lung; that's why you're coughing up blood." She started to heal me when Sai walked over, trying to straighten out his hair.

"Hey, nice abs." he said after watching for a few seconds.

I looked at him like he was insane, but after seeing that he was completely serious, decided to answer him with "Thanks, you too." I'm pretty sure passed out right after Sakura punched him.

:: — : — : — ::

I woke up in what I think was the hospital. It was really, really white. I sat up slowly, expecting to be in pain behind the bandages that wrapped around my ribcage, but was kind of surprised that I felt just fine. I looked up when I heard Hinamori walk through the sliding door. She looked great, better than she did when I last saw her, I think.

"You're up!" She ran over to my bed. "How are you? Can you walk?" She looked like she was glowing 'How does she do that?'

"Good Morning to you too, Hinamori." I smiled. "I feel great. What about you? You look like Naruto didn't even touch you." I stood up and Hinamori grabbed my hand.

"Yeah, it wasn't really that hard to fight him." she said as she dragged me down seemingly random hallways. "I think that he was holding back his true power, and that he didn't want to hurt me. After all, we had no real reason to fight."

"Hinamori, could you please tell me where are we going?" I asked as she turned so quickly that I almost ran into a wall. I didn't hear an answer, just a small giggle, and another tight turn.

We finally stopped at a door two stories below my room and I had to clutch my aching side just to breathe properly. Hinamori turned to me giggling, "You have got to see this." She opened the door into what looked like a recovery room. As I stepped in further I saw the three guy's lying in bed: Izuru talking to himself, Renji swearing at his many bandages, and Hitsugaya glaring out the sunny window. I had to bite my lip to keep myself from busting out laughing.

"Well isn't this just pitiful." I said smirking. I slowly started walking around the room. "Hinamori, have you ever seen such a pathetic sight?" Slipping around to the chair at the side of Izuru's bed, I gracefully sat, smirk still on my face, and turned to look at the bedridden captain. "And you, _sir_, was Kisa and her pet deer just too much trouble for the great tenth company captain?" I ignored his icy glare and continued by turning to the also glaring Renji. "And I'm sure that the wanna-be pretty boy and his stalker were cold-blooded killers."

When I turned to Izuru he looked terrified when he said, "Kei, could you stop smirking? You look too much like... Ichima-" he cut his own words off, looking down at his bandaged hands, "... _him_"

My heart sank in my chest as I dropped my smirk and tried to change the subject. "Way to kill the mood, man." I got up to sit on the edge of his bed, taking a deep breath. "So, how did the mauling go?" I said gesturing toward his many bandages and wraps.

He sensed my need to change the topic and went along with it "They fought like animals, I've never seen anyone fight like that." He shrugged one side of his hospital robe off of his shoulder and showed me a large bandage. "That's where the dog got me." Then, he showed me a bruise on his left side. "The girl... Kiko, I think, punched me here when I dodged an attack from the boy." I sighed and brushed a messy lock of hair from his face, but stopped when I saw another bruise shading one of his high cheekbones; Izuru chuckled. "Oh that, the boy punched me there when I was distracted by you calling out to your zanpakuto..."

I jumped up from the bed. "I'm going to kill him! I thought told that chick to keep her dog on a leash! How dare he hurt your beautiful face! Why I-" I stopped when Izuru pulled me back down onto his bed and pressed a finger to my lips.

"Hush... You're going to wake up Renji." he smiled. I turned away from him, hiding my blush, and looked over toward the sleep-talking redhead. We listened in silence for a while, but the murmurs were soon becoming incoherent. "I wonder why that Yuka girl would be chasing after him in his dream." he whispered, resting his head on my shoulder.

I shrugged my shoulders and sighed. Hinamori was quietly talking to Hitsugaya as she tended to one of his wounds. I swore, for a minute I thought I saw him smile a little when she called him "Shiro-chan" in that sweet little voice of hers. "This will be good for the two of them, don't you think?" I whispered back to Izuru.

I turned around and snuggled close to his less injured side. He leaned over and kissed the top of my head. "Yeah, I think it will."


	5. Chapter 5

chapter 5

'I swear, Taka Arashi, did it always take this long for him to heal?' I questioned my fiery soul-slayer as I glared at the sleeping form of Izuru. 'It's been almost a week. I'm going to go crazy!'

'_Don't fluster yourself. It does no one any good.' _I heard the soothing voice of my zanpakuto from over my shoulder. _'Besides, there's no way any sort of complaints will speed the process up. His body is probably just getting use to the new kinds of medicine.' _at that comment I could almost feel a comforting brush of warm feathers against my cheek, while I did nothing but mumble quietly to myself.

My brooding thoughts were rudely interrupted by loud shouting coming from down the hall. "What do you mean 'They're not ready yet!'?" I heard a familiar voice say. "We've got a mission to go do!" Then I thought I heard someone else's voice that I didn't recognize but I had no time to think as the first voice said, 'More like screamed...' "Fine! What room are they in?!"

'If that boy doesn't quiet down, he'll wake the dead...' I spared a glance at Hinamori sleeping in the chair next to Hitsugaya's bed as I stood from my seat, '... Or the unconscious.' I briskly walked over to the door when I heard not-so-quiet footsteps coming to the room.

I stood my ground when the door slammed open revealing Naruto, but when the first two words out of his mouth were not of normal volume I punched him in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs. I gently closed the door behind me and folded my arms, waiting for the kneeling boy in front of me to catch his breath; my yellow eyes narrowed slightly with irritation.

"What..." his voice came out in a hoarse whisper, "... was that... for?" He stood up now, rubbing his stomach.

I relaxed my posture a bit and I gestured vaguely back to the room while quietly saying, "Sleep is very important to a quick recovery. You were going to run into that room yelling at the top of your lungs." I stood there looking at him, but when he didn't say anything I continued with, "Have you seen dog-boy around lately?"

That seemed to confuse him a bit. "You mean Kiba?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "I haven't seen him. I think he went camping with Kiko a couple days ago... Why?"

I innocently looked up at the ceiling. "Oh, no reason." I turned toward the door and went back inside of the room, not turning around when I heard Naruto follow me in. I walked over to the side of Izuru's bed and gently ran my fingers through his messy, neglected , yet beautiful, straw-blonde hair; a small smile dancing upon my face.

"So, um…" Naruto whispered behind me, hesitant to ruin the intimate moment, "Do you have any medics with you? You know, to heal him faster?"

I rolled my eyes at his awkward wording, but shook my head and he left with a small nod. It was quiet again and the silence made me think. 'Do I know anyone who has any knowledge of medicine?' My head scrolled through the fourth company, but I didn't really know any of them…

Then it hit me. He may not know much about medicine, exactly, but it would be extremely useful if he did come. I started to plan the arrival out in my head. 'Yes, this could work.' I smiled, almost evilly, to myself and left to start the preparations.


	6. Chapter 6

chapter 6

I leaned back against the thick trunk of the tree I sat in, yawning. 'Jeez. Do they have to take forever too?' It was almost nighttime, and sitting outside of the West Gate all day was boring. 'Really, _really_ boring.'

'_Don't worry. I feel them coming.'_ Taka Arashi whispered in my head. _'They'll be here soon.' _And so, I waited, counting the stars as they came into view.

A breeze came, blowing up dust and leaves. 'This must be their dramatic entrance.' I sighed to myself as I jumped down from my perch. As I stood and turned toward the gate I could see two shadows through the dust. "It's nice to see you. Do you think it took you long enough to come here?"

"Kei? Is that you?" I heard a voice come from one of the shadows.

I rolled my eyes as my best friend ran into view, her long blue hair streaming behind her. "No, Amaya. I'm actually Aizen, but in disguise." I teased, striking a dramatic super model pose. "It's a good disguise isn't it?"

I laughed as her face turn into a scowl, "That's not very funny." She said, walking up to hug me. I shrugged, looking over her shoulder and sighed.

"You really should get Kisuke to walk faster. Was he always so slow?" I couldn't stand there any longer, my impatient half getting the best of me. "Amaya, does Kisuke have any new medicines?"

Amaya looked back at me nodding. "I told him to bring his whole selection when I heard that Izuru was in the hospital… What happened to him anyway?" She asked, tilting her head when I had nothing more to say than "Dog bite."

Kisuke finally walked up to us, carrying a thin, brown briefcase. "Hi Kei! It's been far too long." He greeted, giving me a small nod. "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to set up shop here for a bit." I said, turning into business-mode. "Your… um, services… would be quite useful here." Then I smiled, "Besides, I think that there are a lot of people here willing to be conned into buying... whatever it is you sell."

He seemed to brighten up when I said that and started to walk away. Obviously his sales haven't been going very well recently. 'Figures, the only thing that people buy in that store are his black market items, and really only Rukia bought those.'

Amaya smiled at me and took the briefcase. "Now, we- well, I- have developed a brand new medication the will revolutionize the world." I watched as she pulled out a shiny, hot pink bottle. "With this balm you can heal cuts, bruises, and scrapes with ease! And, 95.7 of the time, does not leave a single scar!" I laughed, her infomercial-like attitude was just too much for me to take. "Plus, It matches your hair perfectly!" She shoved the bottle into my hands. "The side effects are burning and irritation of the treated area, but are usually mild and temporary."

I stood, still laughing, as Amaya rushed off after Kisuke. 'Do they even know where they're going?' I turned around and headed back to the hospital.


	7. Chapter 7

chapter 7

"Good morning, sweethearts!" I sang, skipping into the recovery room full of sleeping soul reapers. "I trust you slept well!" I jumped onto the foot of Izuru's bed as Hinamori walked in, smiling at my contagious giddiness.

"Izuru," I heard Renji mumble into his pillow, "Do something to make that girl shut up. I'm trying to sleep here."

"Aww, Renji, that's not very nice. After I healed all of you and everything..." I pouted and turned toward Izuru. "Kira-kun," I whined, inching closer to his blushing face. "Renji's being really mean." I gave him my "kicked puppy look."

He slowly mumbled something, but it was incoherent. I smiled and patted him on the head. "Kei." I winced and turned around at the cold tone in the captain's voice. "Care to explain why all of our wounds have healed overnight?"

I averted my attention to a piece of my bangs and mumbled an answer. "I just happened to find this medicine lying around... used it on you guys... guess it worked." I heard Hinamori's giggle from the other side of the room.

"And you used this on us in the middle of the night?" The air around Hitsugaya seemed to drop a few degrees.

I looked him straight in the eye, feeling a wave of sarcasm come over me. "Don't be silly, _Shiro-chan_. Hinamori used it on_ you_, of course." I held back a fit of laughter only at Hinamori's expense. "I wouldn't _dare_ touch you with her hovering over my shoulder." I gave him an "Are you crazy?" look and said, "Besides, you would probably give me severe frostbite." I jumped off the bed and headed back out the door, "Ciao, babies. I hear that dog-boy's back in town. I'll be back."

I stood outside, gleefully listening to the stunned silence of the room I left. "Who's 'dog-boy'?" I heard Renji ask.

There was another silence. Then a small "Oh-no..." That, I could tell, was Izuru. And I ran before he could even think of stopping me. 'If there's anything I know how to do, it's hold a grudge.'

:: — : — : — ::

I walked down the crowded streets of Konoha. 'I thought that I sensed him near here...' I turned into what appeared to be a barbeque restaurant, a very packed barbeque restaurant. I looked around at the many booths and smiled. 'My, my... What do we have here?'

At one particularly large table sat a larger boy who I didn't recognize, but was arguing with Pineapple-head, Neji, his hair being twirled by Yuka, Kisa, currently asleep on Shikamaru's shoulder, Naruto, dramatically telling a story to a wide-eyed, dark-haired girl, and Kiko sitting on Kiba's lap. I sensed that Izuru's spiritual pressure was moving. '_If you're going to do this, then you better get it moving along.' _I could almost feel Taka Arashi's impatience. 'I see that someone else has become quite attached to little Kira-kun as well, eh Taka Arashi?.'

I dropped the subject because as soon as Kiba turned to look at me I felt a swell of angry power, surging from the being of my unwillingly inactive zanpakuto. "Hey you! Dog-boy!" I yelled, sure that my soul-slayer's voice was mixed in. "I need to have a word with you." Then I looked at Kiko as they both stood to face my, now slightly glowing, figure, "Preferably alone." I felt my spiritual pressure flare as a low snarl emitted from the couple. "Fine then, be that way."

I walked outside of the restaurant. 'I don't want any property damages. That would suck.' I stopped, turning around so that the couple behind me were close enough to feel the sting of my spiritual energy. "Dog-boy." I started. "Can you remember the man that you fought roughly a week ago?" I smiled sweetly as a look of realization dawned on Kiko's face. 'So, I did tell her to keep her dog tied up.'

Unfortunately, for him, Kiba's tanned face turned into a wide smirk and said, "Yeah, I remember. He's a weak fighter. I don't know why we had to fight someone so... _pathetic_." I felt Taka Arashi's fury cloud my vision for a moment, so I heard rather than saw Kiko slap her forehead.

I couldn't hold it in any longer and, holding back the bulk of my fury, I swiftly punched that stupid smirk off of his face. I felt that I should have added a good kick, but Kiba's howl of pain was satisfying enough for now. I rubbed my aching fist. 'Stupid, stiff gigai...'

"Hey! What happened out here?" yelled Naruto, closely followed by the rest of the group. He ran over to Kiko, who was kneeling over the bleeding boy on the ground. "Are you hurt, Kiba?" he asked, getting no other answer besides a glare from Kiko and a middle finger from Kiba.

At that moment the, previously bedridden, but now healthy, soul reapers jumped from out of nowhere to land around me. "Kei Akumamaru, what did you do?" I faced the questioning captain and smiled sweetly.

"He started it, sir." When his glared intensified I continued. "There wasn't any damaged property, unless you count Dog-boy's nose. And, besides, he deserved it." Then, it was my turn to narrow my eyes as Hitsugaya opened his mouth to protest. "Don't you dare start with me, captain." I felt my leftover rage bubble up as I challenged the white-haired captain. "You try to look me in the eye and tell me that if someone hurt Lieutenant Hinamori, that you wouldn't hesitate to let Hyourinmaru freeze their intestines from the inside out!"

He looked shocked by my outburst, but that didn't stop me. My rage overtook my will and tears began to flow from my eyes. "What was it you said to Captain Ichimaru?!" I tried to keep my hands from shaking by clenching them so hard that my nails bit into my palm. "You told him 'If you make Hinamori spill one drop of blood, I'll kill you!' Isn't that what you said to our captain?!" I could feel everyone's eyes on me and it made me angrier, but now my voice could only manage a whisper. "Am I wrong?..." I couldn't handle the stares and I bolted away from the crowds, running to the only place where I knew someone was there to listen.

chapter 8

I wailed into Amaya's shoulder, "I hate this place! The spiritual pressure's so off balance! It makes my mood swings out of control!" I felt her gently pat my back. "Everyone going to hate me when I get back..."

"No they won't, Kei, It will be fine..."she said. I took a deep breath and sighed, wiping my tears away. "You should see me when Kisuke's new fan-girls shows up." I laughed at that, picturing my friend's jealous rage was always funny to me.

I stood up from the floor of the large storage room we were in and after helping Amaya up, we walked back into the empty store. "Have you noticed the unusual spiritual pressure too, Amaya?" I asked, eying a shelf of candies.

"Yeah," she said, rearranging a pyramid of cans. "Especially when people come in groups. There's no arrangement to their powers. I mean, I suppose the genin, chunin, jounin ranks kind of divide them, but that really only helps organize who to give what jobs to, right?" I nodded my head in agreement. "I mean, can't you sense the energy that Naruto's practically drowning in?"

I again nodded. "It rivals Zaraki-taichou's, maybe even Ichigo's strength... I'd hate to see him when he's mad." I turned just in time to see Kisuke walk in, scaring Amaya, making her knock down her great can pyramid.

"Oops! Sorry, Amaya-chan!" he said patting her on the head. I tried to disguise my laughter as a cough when I saw Amaya practically melt under Kisuke's hand. He turned to me, appearing to just notice my presence. "Oh! I didn't see you there, Kei." I rolled my eyes, 'Yeah right, the former captain of the twelfth company can't sense a person who's standing just ten feet away from him. Good sense of logic, Kisuke.'

But, my train of thought was cut off when Kisuke continued with, "You know, I just ran into Hitsugaya-taichou, cheery guy." I'm sure my mouth was hanging open at this point. "He said that he was looking for you." I felt dizzy. 'The prodigy captain is coming after me?' I groaned. 'He is sooo going to kill me.'

Just then, the door opened, letting in a rather perturbed looking captain followed by Kisa who was dragging along Shikamaru. I heard Ayame mutter something about "Speak of the devil..."as I ran to hide behind her. She smiled at the captain and said, "Can I help you with something, sir?"

He didn't even respond to her, but instead gave a small nod to Shikamaru. I felt my muscles tense and freeze up. "Kagemane no jutsu: success." I glared at Shikamaru, who was standing across the room with a smug smile on his face. 'So this is what Renji was talking about.'

Ayame turned to me, surprised. But, when she understood what was happening, I thought I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. "Don't attack them! They probably thought that I would run away when they found me." I could do nothing but watch as Renji, Izuru, and the rest of the search party, walked into the store. Hitsugaya moved toward me. "Although, I do feel a little hurt, sir, that you don't trust me enough to let me _move_ on my own." I said, causing a wave of nervousness to come over Izuru.

I felt the binding shadow release me and my legs felt weak from the unusual experience. "I'm sorry for how I acted, Hitsugaya-taichou. I was out of line and I will accept the punishment for my behavior." I said, bowing down to the captain.

When I looked up, he was surprised, probably expecting another outburst. But, he quickly composed himself. "You idiot. I'm not going to punish you." Then I thought I'd heard him mutter, "Momo would kill me..."

I sighed out of relief and walked back over to join my place beside my fellow soul reapers.


End file.
